Archive for August 28th, 2009
Friday, August 28th, 2009
It was May of 2007, when Trish Stressman was paralyzed from the chest down during an ATV accident in Mexico with her husband.
“I was like ‘Scott let’s go see the seagulls’ and we wanted to drive out to them and see them fly,” said Stressman. “That’s the last thing I remember.”
She was airlifted to a Phoenix hospital where she said doctors told her, “‘This is horrible,’ before I went into surgery they told me when I was all alone in my room I would never walk again.”
Confined to a wheel chair, she continues to fight two years later.
She said doctors in the US told her this is as good as it would get because she burst her T6 vertebrae.
“And a chip of it hit my spinal cord, now I’m paralyzed from the chest down,” she said. (more…)
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Friday, August 28th, 2009
Like a spoiled child not happy with a parental decision, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is seeking to overturn the decision of the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos (Aresep) to reduce electrical rates by 7.2%.
The state institution (ICE) wants the decision by the regulator of public prices and services (Aresep) annulled.
ICE’s president, Pedro Pablo Quirós, said on Wednesday that the institution will be asking the Aresep to take a step back on the approval.
ICE considers the reduction, which affects all distributors of electrical energy in the country, including the Compañia de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL), an ICE subsidiary, as well as the Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia, Jasec, and other electrical distributors in the country, will negatively affect the economics of the institution and the distributors that could result in black outs.
Quirós said that a formal request will be made today.
According to ICE it will lose some ¢10 billion colones in revenue in the last four months of this year if the reduction takes effect next month as ordered by the Aresep.
The Aresep decision came after a request by the Cámara de Industrias y la Asociación de grandes consumidores de energía based on costs savings by ICE in 2009.
The Cámara said in its filing that the ICE expenditure for bunker and diesel fuel used to produce electricity was much lower that the state institution had forecast and consumers should benefit.
Originally ICE said it would be spending ¢97.9 billion colones while a new calculation revealed that the cost was actually ¢45.5 billion colones.
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Friday, August 28th, 2009
If you have been thinking of obtaining your Costa Rican drivers license now is a good time to do so, for come September 23, 2009 the fine for driving without a license or an expired license will be ¢106.800 colones and points that will be added to your license if and when you obtain one.
The current fine is ¢2.600 colones plus costs.
The new Ley de Tránsito which is expected to take full effect on September 23, will require everyone behind the wheel of a vehicle to have a Costa Rican drivers license.
This requirements includes foreigners living in Costa Rica, with the only exception is for visitors who can drive with the license from their home country as long as they are within the “tourist visa” period and a passport to confirm such. The tourist visa period for North Americans and Europeans is 90 days, while 30 days for most other countries.
And as such the lines at the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) of the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) in La Uruca and other regional centers, have been long for the past week.
The long lines include first time drivers, those with expired licenses and some foreigners deciding to obtain their Costa Rican drivers license.
The number of people at the La Uruca Conavi offices has been more than 1.000 people daily as for such the Conavi will remain open up to 6pm daily (two additional hours).
License renewals can also be obtained at the Banco de Costa Rica branch in La Uruca and other branches, but only with an appointment. To make an appointment at the BCR the number is 800 227-24-82.
Foreigners who want to obtain their Costa Rican drivers license, however, must personally visit the Conavi offices in La Uruca and regional offices, presenting their home country drivers license and passport with the entry stamp and a medical certificate, which can be obtained easily from medical offices located in the vicinity of the Conavi.
Costa Rican drivers licenses will only be issued, without the written and driving test, to foreigners while in their “tourist visa” period, after that they must present proof of the written examination and the driving test.
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Friday, August 28th, 2009
The State Department signaled Thursday the Obama administration is ready to take tougher action against the defacto leadership in Honduras because of the political impasse over President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster in June. An Organization of American States diplomatic mission to Tegucigalpa this week returned empty-handed.
Officials here say Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to make a formal determination as early as Friday that the ouster of Mr. Zelaya was an extra-legal coup, action that would set in motion deep cuts in U.S. aid, and other steps against the interim government.
Obama administration officials have been saying since the democratically-elected Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the Honduran military and deported to Costa Rica on June 28 that the action amounted to a coup, despite the fact that officials of the successor administration maintain they acted within the law. (more…)
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